The reason is: they work if you do a little each day. If you relax and give yourself permission to only improve a little each day, then a good habit works.

It’s permission to improve. It’s also permission to fail. Because when you first start something, you’re on day one.

If you want to succeed at anything, you have to give yourself permission to fail twice as much as you thought you would.

If you insist, I need to change RIGHT NOW, then it won’t work. You’ll only get worse.

If you insist the habit changes tomorrow, then the habit will certainly fail.

Coolio, the rapper, wrote lyrics every day for 17 years before having a hit.

Commander Hadfield, the astronaut, improved his skills every day for 20 years before getting into space.

Kurt Vonnegut wrote every day for 25 years before he had a major bestseller.

Even Mozart, despite being a prodigy, wrote music for 10 years every day before becoming a true master.

Improve a little each day. It compounds. When 1% compounds every day, it doubles every 72 days, not every 100 days. Compounding tiny excellence is what creates big excellence.

You can’t be a master in one day. You have to improve a little every day.

Picasso created 2 works of art a day. That’s 50,000 in a lifetime. It adds up.

“But it’s too late for me!”.

No, it’s not. Compounding creates fast results.

If I read 5 pages a day from non-fiction books, then in a year I will have read 1830 pages of knowledge. And each page I read will build upon the pages I’ve read before.

And it’s 1830 pages 99% of people won’t read. Most people don’t pick up a book after age 20.

If I write 1000 words a day, then in one day that’s nothing. In one year that’s the equivalent of 6-8 novels.

Also you can also decrease 1% a day. We can say, “aww, it’s only one day. Don’t pressure me!”

Such an easy choice. It seems trivial. 1% up or 1% down. But it sneaks up. And then we’re old and lonely.

Every day matters.

When I was losing all of my money, and hanging around with the wrong people. And taking the wrong drugs and dating the wrong people, It’s because I was saying, “it’s just 1 day”. Or, “I don’t need to improve every day, it adds up to nothing”.

Because I couldn’t see how it was adding up at first. And that became my trademarked technique for losing everything, For losing my mind. For being lonely.

It was the one thing that worked: 1% decrease a day cost me everything. I had to get back to 1% up a day.

The 1% Rule can be applied to everything. If I spend 1 less minute feeling regret and use that to feel gratitude, how much better for my stress levels will that be in one year’s time.

Stress is 100% reverse correlated with longer healthier happier life. With more money. With more love. With more creativity.

Every habit can be built using this technique.

Thoughts are in the head. Thinking, “this seems like a good habit” is a start. Reading about it is a second start. But…

Actions are outside of the head or body. Take 1% action per day.

More than that and you’ll give-up (“diets don’t work!”). Less than that and it might take too long (“diets don’t work!”).

It doesn’t happen in one day. There are no goals. There’s only practice. Practice never makes perfect. Practice makes happy. Practice makes habits.

Subscribe to my Podcast

Awesome!!

TAKE the first step TOWARDS CHOOSING YOURSELF:

By submitting your email address, you will receive a free subscription to Altucher Confidential. This daily investment newsletter delivers free independent financial forecasting and commentary along with carefully selected products and services that we think might interest you. We will not share your email address and you can unsubscribe at any time. Privacy Policy.